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Caption

CERN detector mirror, 1966. Researcher polishing a Cerenkov mirror for a detector at CERN. CERN is the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. It uses accelerators to form beams of high-energy particles and collide them with targets. The collisions create new particles that are detected by devices like this. Cerenkov detectors are used to detect particles by the Cerenkov radiation they emit as they pass through a material faster than light can. A mirror is used to focus the radiation. The results allow physicists to study the fundamental structure of matter. Many key discoveries in particle physics were made at CERN, which was founded in 1954.